1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recoil starter for starting an engine by rotating a rotating member connected to a crankshaft of the engine by rotating a rope reel by operating to pull a recoil rope and transmitting rotation of the rope reel to a cam by way of the cam.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a recoil starter for starting an engine by rotating a crankshaft of the engine by rotating a rope reel by traction of a recoil rope wound around the rope reel and transmitting rotation of a cam rotatably connected to the rope reel to a rotating member of a flywheel magnet, a drive pulley or the like attached to the crankshaft of the engine by way of a crutch mechanism of a centrifugal clutch or the like by way of the rotating member, in which a damping force storing member is interposed between the rope reel and the cam, impact by a variation in a rapid load on a side of the engine is damped by the damping force storing member such that the impact is not transmitted to a side of the rope reel, a rotational force of the rope reel is stored in the damping force storing member and the engine is facilitated to start by releasing the rotational force stored to the damping force storing member to the side of the cam.
According to the recoil starter having the damping force storing member arranged between the rope reel and the cam as described above, the rope reel rotated in an engine starting direction by traction of the recoil rope and the cam for transmitting the rotational force to the rotating member connected to the crankshaft of the engine by way of the clutch mechanism are rotatably supported respectively by a support shaft formed in a case, a ring-like recess portion is formed at a side face of the rope reel and a boss portion of the cam is contained in the ring-like recess portion, the rope reel and the cam are rotatably connected by connecting both ends of a mainspring constituting the damping force storing member contained in the ring-like recess portion to between an inner peripheral face of the ring-like recess portion of the rope reel and an outer peripheral face of the boss portion of the cam, further, a ratchet mechanism is formed at a side face of the rope reel proximate to an outer periphery thereof, the ratchet mechanism is operated by being engaged with an inner peripheral face of the case containing the rope reel and the like, when the rope reel is rotated in the engine starting direction, the ratchet mechanism is separated from an engaging member formed at an outer periphery of the cam, when the rope reel is rotated in a direction reverse to the engine starting direction by the rotational force stored to the recoil mainspring, the ratchet mechanism is engaged with the engaging member and the cam is rotated in the reverse direction integrally with the rope reel, as disclosed in JP-A-2004-197731.
According to the ratchet mechanism for interrupting rotation between the rope reel and the cam of the background art, a ratchet member is pivotably supported by a side face portion proximate to the outer periphery of the rope reel rotatably held by the reel support shaft formed in the case, when the rope reel is rotated in the case, the ratchet member is operated to pivot by engaging the ratchet member with the inner peripheral face of the case, thereby, the ratchet member is engaged with and separated from the engaging member formed at the outer periphery of the cam and therefore, it is necessary to form a peripheral wall portion in a cylindrical shape engaged with the ratchet mechanism at the inner peripheral face of the case opposed to the outer periphery of the rope reel and therefore, outer shapes of the rope reel and the case are large and part prices are made to be expensive to constitute a factor of hampering small-sized and light-weighted formation and a reduction in cost of the recoil starter.